Pocahontas in Mississippi?

            If you get weary traveling up U.S. Highway 49 through the heart of Mississippi, you can visit a rest stop that includes bathrooms, tourist information and two Native American mounds.

            Located inside the highway’s median within Hinds County, these mounds — known as Pocahontas A and Pocahontas B — date back between 800 and 1300 A.D. and are registered with the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). It is believed that the Coles Creek and Plaquemine Mississippian cultures once occupied the site. Researchers at Mississippi State University suspect the mounds may be older than previously thought, perhaps dating as far back as the Middle to Late Archaic period, from 4000 to 1000 B.C.

            Pocahontas Mound A is rectangular, dating between 1000 and 1300 A.D., according to the NRHP web site, and includes the “remains of a mud-plastered log-post building” on top of the mound once used for ceremonies or as the home of a chief. A village once surrounded the mound, according to the NRHP.

            The reason for the name has nothing to do with the mound’s Native American origin, however. At least not directly. The park and mounds are located in the town of Pocahontas, which originated when the Illinois Central Railroad came through in 1884. The town was named for the famous Native American princess, who lived on the East Coast and saved pioneer John Smith during America’s colonial days. The mounds inspired the early residents to give the town such a name, but Pocahontas never set foot in Mississippi and those who lived at the mounds never associated with Pocahontas’s tribe.

            Before the mounds were preserved, residents would use the tall earthen rises as platforms for speeches, mostly political. When U.S. 49 was being built, one of the mounds was almost destroyed to make way for the highway. The Mississippi Department of Archives and History came to the mounds’ rescue and convinced the powers-that-be to curve the highway away from the ancient rises. 

            In 1968, the park was constructed.

            Visitors can view the mounds from a short distance and learn about the site from information available at the rest stop, which is open to the public daily from dawn to dusk. The town of Pocahontas is about nine miles north of Jackson, Miss., at the interchange of U.S. 49 and Interstate 220.

Louisiana’s Poverty Point is some sweet, yeah!

Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne with a scale model 

of Poverty Point made out of Mounds bars.

            In the northeastern corner of the Bayou State lies a series of Native American mounds and structured city like no other. The 3,400-year-old site named Poverty Point — for the plantation owner who struggled on the land in recent times, not the ancient natives — the site consisted of several earthen ridges stretched in a semi-circle facing a wide plaza with various mounds scattered about and a giant earthen bird in the rear with its wings stretching outward.

            Poverty Point is considered one of the most culturally significant Native American sites in the United States, but don’t take our word for it. The archaeological treasure was just named a UNESCO World Heritage site.

            In honor of Poverty Point being named the 1001^st site inscribed to the UNESCO World Heritage List, the Hershey Company donated 1,001 Mounds candy bars to celebrate. (Get it? Mounds candy?) Louisiana Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne requested the bars last month to hand out at the site’s inscription ceremony beginning at 10 a.m. Oct. 11, 2014, in Epps, Louisiana. Pictured is Dardenne creating his own Poverty Point in Mounds bars.

            The ceremony will include the unveiling of the UNESCO World Heritage Site plaque and remarks by U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu and dignitaries from the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of the Interior. The ceremony will be followed by a community event including free food and living history demonstrations beginning at 11 a.m.

Sunset over the eagle mound at Poverty Point.

            Poverty Point is the 22nd World Heritage Site in the U.S. and joins the ranks of others worldwide including the Great Wall of China, Stonehenge and the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt. Poverty Point was the U.S. Department of the Interior’s lone nomination for World Heritage status — adding to the site’s accolades as a National Historic Landmark, National Monument and Smithsonian Affiliate.

            But I’ll bet none of the World Heritage Sites or other landmarks were replicated in Mounds candy!

Cheré Coen is an award-winning travel writer specializing in the Deep South. She is also the author of “Forest Hill, Louisiana: A Bloom Town History,” “Haunted Lafayette, Louisiana” and “Exploring Cajun Country: A Historic Guide to Acadiana” and co-author of “Magic’s in the Bag: Creating Spellbinding Gris Gris Bags and Sachets.” Write her at cherecoen@gmail.com.